The first session on consulting skills has taken us through the
roots of consulting and purpose of consulting. If I would explain in simple
terms then it is nothing but taking up responsibility without authority. It is
not just the professional’s cup of tea, even we as individuals do a lot of
consulting in our daily life. We do so by helping strangers, family and
friends. Consultant has to find out possible obstacles and providing options as
solution to the problem, now it depends on the clients whether they are taking these
suggestions into consideration or not.
While
doing consulting you would find a number of resistances coming your way, Peter
Block says, “Resistance doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it is puzzling
and frustrating”. As per Peter Block, followings are the skills required to
deal with resistance…
1.
Be able to identify when
resistance is taking place
2.
View resistance as a
natural process and a sign that you are on target
3.
Support the client in
expressing the resistance directly
4.
Not take the expression
of the resistance personally or as an attack on you or your competence
A consultant has to be smart enough to smell
resistance in advance and he should be well equipped with alternate strategy so
that he can overcome these resistances. As per Block, “The most blatant form of
resistance is when the client attacks us. Angry words, a red face, fist
pounding on the desk, finger pointing in your face, punctuating the end of
every sentence. It leaves the consultant feeling like a bumbling child who not
only has done poor work but has somehow violated a line of morality that should
never be crossed. Our response to attack is often either to withdraw or to
respond in kind. Both responses mean that we are beginning to take the attack personally
and not seeing it as one other form that the resistance is taking. A consultant
should not take any form of resistance personally.
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